At the height of the Cold War, Berlin is a divided city. The Americans, British and French occupy the Western half of the city, the Soviets occupy the Eastern half. Berliners go about their daily lives as best they can, but then one Sunday morning in August 1961 they wake to find their city divided not just by political ideas but by barbed wire - miles and miles of it snaking through the city. The Berlin Wall is about to be built. East and West are to be separated forever.
The author, Margarita Morris, visited East and West Berlin as a student in 1987, two years before the Wall came down. It was that experience of visiting a divided city that inspired her to write this novel. Oranges for Christmas tells the story of one family’s attempt to escape from Communist East Berlin and to be reunited in the West. It is a story of hope, struggle and betrayal. Described as “a heart-wrenching window into a terrible piece of history” and “a must-read for anybody interested in modern history, and for anyone who enjoys a gritty drama.”
The War is over. But Sabine the fight for freedom has only just begun.